Ivey calls for scholarship over STEM education

MURFREESBORO — Higher education should put a greater focus on the effects of arts and the humanities even as others emphasize science and technical education, said Bill Ivey, former director of the Country Music Hall of Fame and former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, at MTSU on Monday evening.

During the keynote lecture for the university's Scholars Week, Ivey said higher education has shifted to promote workforce development and that focus has created a type of "new draft" for young Americans.

"You're being drafted not into the army but into the global workforce," Ivey said.

The author and former NEA director considers an education focused on science, technology, engineering and mathematics to be "an intellectually incoherent concept" that places the training of a technically savvy workforce in front of scholarships and students' ability to learn the skills taught through arts and philosophy.

While students are trained to compete in a global marketplace, they do so as colleges and universities have continued to rely on fewer state dollars and a greater focus on businesslike ideals.

Ivey is optimistic, however, that higher education is heading toward a shift in philosophy that will focus more on scholarship and a broader education.

"And this is coming none too soon," Ivey said. "America faces challenges that can only be solved by old-fashioned scholarship."

The shifts come at the same time the American public is starting to transition away from a "neoliberal," market-focused way of thought popular since the Reagan administration, Ivey said.

While Vermont senator Bernie Sanders is bringing up topics considered implausible for years and businessman Donald Trump is shaking the foundations and basic tenets of the Republican Party, Ivey said it is hard to witness an off-keel American democracy in its current form.

"It's no fun to see our great system of government broken in this way," Ivey said.

College of Media and Entertainment professor Michael Fleming called Ivey's "an event we've been looking forward to" as part of the university's Scholars Week that lasts through Friday.

The week will include presentations from students at multiple colleges, lectures and panels from several guest speakers, as well as a two-day stop from Les Paul's Big Sound Experience music exhibit on Wednesday and Friday.